Soul Dice Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Contents
• Setup
  • Heaven or hell
  • Souls
  • Soul tokens
  • Setting up your own playing areas
• Objective
• How to Play
  • Soul tokens
  • Main actions
    • A) Place numbered cards (1-9)
    • B) Place a harp or trident card
    • C) Pass
  • Additional actions
  • End of round
  • Scoring
  • Preparing for the next round
  • Final scoring
• "Advanced" Rules (with special abilities)
  • Advanced setup
  • Advanced how to play
• "Solo" Rules
  • Solo setup and how to play
  • Solo end of round
  • Solo scoring
  • Solo final scoring
• Soul Rules
  • 1. Placement rule
  • 2. Effect
  • 3. Effect
  • 4. Placement rule
  • 5. Condition
  • 6. Effect
  • 7. Effect
  • 8. Placement rule
  • 9. Effect
  • 10. Condition
  • 11. Placement rule
  • 12. Effect
  • 13. Effect

Contents

65 cards:

• 20 angel cards (2x each of the numbers from 1 to 9, 2x harp)
• 20 devil cards (2x each of the numbers from 1 to 9, 2x trident)
• 15 soul cards (5 of each colour)
• 8 special skills
• 2 cards "Game Overview"

Other components:

• 2 player boards
• 4 crystals (2x in angelic white, 2x in devilish red)
• 10 soul tokens (with values 0, 1 and 2)
• 1 white bag with 10 angel-dice
• 1 black bag with 10 devil-dice

Setup

Heaven or hell

First choose your side, i.e. angel or devil.

Choose the respective components belonging to your faction: the matching deck of cards, a player board, the white or black bag of dice and two crystals.

Souls

Sort the soul cards according to their backs and shuffle each pile face down.

Then place one card from each pile next to each other, face up, in the middle of the playing area.

Soul tokens

Shuffle the soul tokens with values 0 and 1 and place them face down next to the soul cards. The soul markers with a value of 2 only come into play in round 3.

Setting up your own playing areas

Place your player board in your playing area. Shuffle your deck of cards face down. Place the top three cards face up at the top of your player board; these form your display (A). Place the draw pile (B) on the right-hand side of the player board. Turn over the top card of the draw pile so that you can already see the next card. Place your discarded cards (C) on the left-hand side during the course of the game.

Roll all your dice (D) exactly once and place them and the two crystals (E) next to the player board as your supply.

Objective

In "Soul Dice", you use your dice to activate the devil and angel cards, which you place next to the three souls on display between you. In each of the three rounds of the game, you fight for three new souls. Each soul counts as one victory point, and the soul tokens score points as well. Whoever has collected the most soul points after three rounds wins!

How to Play

The angel starts the first and third round.

The devil starts the second round.

Soul tokens

Whoever starts the round draws one of the soul tokens from the supply, looks at it and then places the token face down on one of the three soul cards in the middle. The other player draws another token, looks at it and places it face down on one of the remaining soul cards.

Whoever starts the round then draws a third token and places it face down – without looking at the value – on the last free soul.

As you can see, a face-down soul token has now been placed on each card at the start of the round.

Main actions

Let's jump into battle! You now take turns playing until at least one person has placed all the dice on their own player board.

A turn consists of one of the following 3 main actions:

• A) Place numbered cards (1-9)
• B) Place a harp or trident card
• C) Pass

A) Place numbered cards (1-9)

On your turn, you place up to three numbered cards from your display in any order on any souls (A). To do this, the value of each card must be individually paid for with dice, i.e. you choose dice from your supply whose sum exactly matches the value of the card – only then can the card be placed. The total can be made up of any number of dice (B). Afterwards, you immediately place the used dice on your player board (C). They are no longer available in the current round.

The respective card is placed below the soul you have chosen to draw to your side. See SOUL RULES on page 15 for details. Additional cards are stacked on top of each other so that the numbers on the bottom are easy to read!

Note: If you are unable to place a card at the start of your turn, you must PASS!

Note: Some SOUL RULES are effects – these are activated immediately after placing your own card. Only afterwards do you place another card or end your turn. You cannot choose to ignore the effect of a card! You may only place a card if its effect can be activated!

B) Place a harp or trident card

If you have a harp or trident in your display, you may also use it in your turn. The following rules apply:

• Harps and tridents do not have to be paid for with dice, but with a crystal. Place the crystal on an empty crystal space on your player board.
• Do not place the harp / trident on a soul, but put them back in the box after you have used them.

Note: If you place your harp or trident, you may not place any other cards before or after doing so!

As an additional effect, your opponent must remove a previously placed card. Whoever places the harp or trident determines which card this is. You may only choose one of the last cards (the ones on top) played on a soul.

The selected card is also completely removed from the game and is therefore no longer available.

C) Pass

If you cannot or do not want to place any cards, you may pass. To do so, place a die from your supply on your player board. Your turn ends immediately! This can sometimes be useful to speed up the end of the round.

Additional actions

At any time during your turn, you may perform exactly one of 3 additional actions. To do this, you must place a crystal on your player board each time.

• Turn a die in the supply to any side.
• Re-roll all unused dice in the supply once.
• Place all cards in your display on the discard pile and replace them with new ones.
• In an "ADVANCED" game you may also use your special ability.

At the end of the turn, your own display is refilled to three cards, starting with the face-up card from the draw pile. You then turn over the top card of the draw pile. Whenever you can't draw any more cards, shuffle your discard pile to form a new draw pile!

End of round

You alternate playing turns until one person places the last die on their own player board. It does not matter whether this is done by the action PLACE NUMBERED CARDS or PASS. The other person has one last complete turn, after which the round ends.

Scoring

Count the numerical values of the cards on your side that you have placed under the souls. The player with the highest total receives the soul and the soul token on the card. Place both in your playing area. You can secretly look at the token at any time.

In the event of a tie, the soul's disposition decides who gets it; you can recognize this by the colour in the middle of the card.

• Yellow souls are more inclined towards heaven and go to the angel in the event of a tie.
• Red souls are drawn to the devil's side in the event of a tie.
• Souls with both colours are undecided and are not drawn to either side in the event of a tie. Put them back in the box along with the soul token.

(Example from the rulebook: the angel has reached a value of 10 on this soul card, the devil 8. The angel receives the soul card and token.)

Preparing for the next round

At the end of the first round, carry out the following steps:

1. Put all the cards you have previously placed face down on your own discard pile.
2. The cards in your display area stay where they are.
3. Take all used crystals back into your own supply.
4. Re-roll all the dice and keep them as your supply for the next round.
5. Reveal three new souls, one from each pile!
6. The devil begins the second round by placing a soul token!

At the end of the second round, follow the same steps, but mix the (face-down) soul tokens with a value of 2 into the token supply before step 6. The angel begins the third round.

At the end of the third round, after the SCORING phase, it's time for the FINAL SCORING!

Final scoring

During final scoring, you determine your victory points. Each soul counts as one point. Add up the points on the soul tokens you have earned. The player with the highest number of points has gained the most souls and wins the game.

In the event of a tie, the duel for the souls of mankind is not yet decided. You should start a new game straight away!

"Advanced" Rules (with special abilities)

You can intervene even more actively in the game with evil deeds and blessings. Devil and angel have different abilities and should use them wisely. The rules are identical to a "Standard" game – with the following exceptions and additions.

Advanced setup

Choose one card each from the evil deeds and blessings. For the first game, we recommend "Prophecy" for the angel and "Elimination" for the devil. In subsequent games, you can either draw a card at random or actively choose one. Place the card face up in your playing area.

Advanced how to play

As an extra ADDITIONAL ACTION, you can now use your special ability! To do this, place a crystal on an empty crystal space on your player board. Flip over your special ability card. You can only use your special ability once per game round.

When preparing for the next game round, flip the special ability card back.

"Solo" Rules

As an angel, you are in for an exciting duel: When playing solo, SHADE replaces your duel partner. You have to play your own cards all the more skillfully against him in order to be successful in the end.

Solo setup and how to play

Take the game material belonging to the angel. The rules are identical to the "Standard" rules – with the following exceptions and additions.

You will not be needing the soul tokens.

If you want to PLACE NUMBERED CARDS, you may use a maximum of two cards (A) from your display.

At the end of your turn, you place all unplayed cards from your display on the opposite side of the souls (B), i.e. on SHADE's side.

Note: The following rules apply when you place cards on SHADE's side:

• Take the numbered cards from your player board in any order.
• Start placing a card on SHADE's side next to the soul with the fewest cards.
• If there are several souls with the same number of cards on SHADE's side, start with the soul on the left.

If you choose PASS as your main action, you must place all cards on SHADE's side as described above. (Exception: last die at END OF ROUND.)

SHADE ignores all SOUL RULES. You then refill your display to 3 cards.

Solo end of round

You play until you have placed the last die on your player board. If this is done using the PLACE NUMBERED CARD action, place all remaining cards on SHADE's side as described above. If you PASS, the round ends immediately and SHADE receives no more cards.

Solo scoring

Place the souls that you were able to collect in your own playing area. Collect all the souls that SHADE was able to collect in another pile.

In the event of a tie, the rules of the "Standard" game apply, with the exception of the two-colored, undecided souls – these go to you in the event of a tie.

Solo final scoring

After the third round, count your own points and those of SHADE: as usual, each soul is worth one victory point. Were you able to collect more souls than SHADE? Then you have defeated him and are ready for the next duel.

Was SHADE able to draw more souls to his side? Then you'd better play against him again before you venture into the next real duel.

Soul Rules

The soul rules are listed on pages 15 and 16 of the rulebook, numbered 1 to 15. Each one is a placement rule (which cards may be placed on the soul), an effect (activated when a card is placed), or a condition (checked at the end of the round).

1. Placement rule

You may only place cards with odd numbers (1, 3, 5, 7 or 9) here.

2. Effect

When placing a 1 or 2: Take an already used die, re-roll it and return it to your supply.

3. Effect

When placing a card: Take an unused die from your supply and re-roll it.

4. Placement rule

Each new card you place must have a higher value than the previous one.

5. Condition

At the end of the round, your cards are only scored if the sum of the cards on your side lies between 1 and 7.

6. Effect

When placing a card: Place all cards from the display on the discard pile and replace them with new ones from the draw pile.

7. Effect

You may not place a harp and trident next to this soul.

8. Placement rule

You may only place 2 cards per side.

9. Effect

When placing a 1 or 7: Re-roll all dice in your supply.

10. Condition

At the end of the round, your cards are only scored if you have at least 3 cards on your side.

11. Placement rule

You may only place even numbers here (2, 4, 6 or 8).

12. Effect

When placing a 7 or 8: Take an already used die, re-roll it and return it to your supply.

13. Effect

When placing a card: Place the face-up card from the draw pile in your display. This card may be played in the same turn, but it is not possible to play more than 3 cards as a result.

14. Placement rule

Each new card you place must have a lower value than the previous one.

15. Condition

At the end of the round, your cards are only scored if the sum of the cards on your side lies between 8 and 12.